Paper Flowers
by Death-Angel-Hikari
Summary: We all have dreams and fantasies...but when we realize that these will almost never come true, how do we react? Do we relinquish our hold on to these paperthin thoughts? Do we continue to cling to it, to hold on and persevere? Or do we find a new fantasy


A/N: Hey! The ruler thingy works now! XD Anyway, another very confusing one-shot. I think you could call it a drabble, 'cause there's no storyline whatsoever! At least, none that I can spot right away - and I'm supposed to be the author! XP Anyway, hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and the lyrics are from Evanescence's _Imaginary_...

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Bright sunlight streamed in through the half-drawn curtains, filling the room, surging in through her pupils and chasing away the shadows of semi-sleep...

**_I linger in the doorway_**

**_Of alarm clocks, screaming monsters_**

**_Calling my name..._**

_It's morning again..._A soft sigh. The jade-eyed girl sat up, sullenly relinquishing the darkness she desperately clung to.

**_Let me stay where the wind_**

**_Will whisper to me..._**

She didn't want to wake up just yet And why not? True, she was a child of the Leaf, but she found herself sinking slowly into a void she never knew existed within herself.

Perhaps...this was what _he_ felt back then...

**_Where the raindrops as they're falling_**

**_Tell a story..._**

Another sigh, and Haruno Sakura stood up, swinging her lithe legs over the side of her bed and sliding them into her dainty magenta slippers. Her mother had wanted to get the pink ones, saying they would set off her daughter's hair, but the pink-haired teen - now sixteen years old - had insisted on magenta.

**_In my field of paper flowers_**

**_And candy clouds of lullaby..._**

**_I lie inside myself for hours_**

**_And watch my purple sky fly over me..._**

Slowly she changed out into her usual outfit: black shorts, a pale beige miniskirt, and a sleeveless maroon top. She sighed again as she remembered...

**_Don't say I'm out of touch_**

**_With this rampant chaos, your reality..._**

Her abrupt change into the young woman she saw - reflected now in the mirror before her - had probably begun the night the man she loved betrayed their village. And, in her heart, betrayed _her_, as well.

**_I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge..._**

**_The nightmare I built my own world to escape..._**

His last words to her had been 'Thank you,', but for what? For affording him a bit of mirth on those rather boring days of training. Come to think of it, he, Uchiha Sasuke, had always seemed to be laughing inwardly whenever she and Uzumaki Naruto, the third person in what used to be Team 7. There had always been something in those onyx eyes, something that hinted at disdainful laughter, perhaps at Naruto's - and occassionally Sakura's - expense.

When Sasuke had left, Sakura's world had come tumbling around her, and, more often than not, she refused to go out. She imagined, especially in her dreams, a world where Sasuke had never left, never succumbed to the darkness she felt that threatened to consume her now. Hers was a different darkness, though; where Sasuke's had been a shadow, a quest for power that led to his defection, Sakura's was a gray light that slowly ate away at her usually cheery outlook at life in general.

**_Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming_**

**_Cannot cease for fear of silent nights..._**

She couldn't count the nights she woke up screaming, because of a dream turned into a nightmare, one where she would be training and laughing alongside her teammates and friends, and then, suddenly, one great fireball would engulf her, Naruto would be gone, and she was left to face the flames alone...

**_Oh, how I long for deep sleep, dreaming..._**

**_The goddess of imaginary light..._**

True, they were only dreams, but, she had confided with Tsunade, her current mentor, and was told that these were manifestations of her deep-seated fears and desires. Dreaming of Team 7 still training together was understandable - she and Naruto both wish their comrade had never gone. But what of the flames?

It was only during the break of dawn that day, the thin line between dream and reality, that she understood the significance of fire in her dream-nightmare...

The Godaime Hokage had said the dreams were symbols of her deep-seated desires and fears. One of these were, she knew, to have been able to follow Sasuke wherever he went. Even if it meant being burnt and charred by the heat, the billowing flames of his passion. But not for her, oh, no! This passion, she learned long ago, was to gain enough strength, enough power, to avenge the death of his entire clan. The burning desire to murder his older brother, Uchiha Itachi.

And the dream's symbolism made sense now... After all, was not her name Sakura. She knew that these blossoms were visible for only three days in early spring, during the _hanami_, the flower-viewing festival.

_Ironic_...she thought, tucking her black gloves - which she wore for combat - into one of her pockets, _that I'm named after such a fragile flower_... It was ironic for her because Sakura wasn't fragile; quite the opposite, in fact. She was known for her precise chakra control and the uncanny strength in hand-to-hand combat granted by such an ability. She was also a skilled medic nin-in-training.

**_In my field of paper flowers_**

**_And candy clouds of lullaby..._**

She shook her head slowly, silently laughing at herself. She was supposed to be over Sasuke; it had been nearly three years and she _still_ could not forget!

She straightened up, looked herself over in the mirror - after tying her forehead protector over hair in the manner of a headband - and smiled, satisfied.

She acknowledged the fact that she couldn't keep living in a dreamworld, a fantasy land where everything was as she wished it to be.

**_I lie inside myself for hours..._**

She knew that, but she refused to act accordingly. She may have grown some, but she knew it never hurt to be in touch with the inner child every once in a while. And now, with _this_ new realization, she could feel some of her own darkness slipping away. And her smile grew.

**_And watch my purple sky fly over me..._**

Yes, she would continue to imagine life as she wished it, because she knew now that she could never be able to suppress that part of her nature. And so, smiling, she began this day anew, reborn. She would still be the Sakura that everyone knew, but she would also be, in her mind, a single blossom, as delicate as paper, offering herself to the fire of her unrequited love, a one-sided love to be sure, one that she'd found, lost, and found again in her dreams and nightmares.

She would be the fuel for his passion, someday, she felt it. After all, was not her name Sakura? Yes, she would be that flower. She would blossom for only a short time, yet leave an everlasting mark on all who saw her.

And she was determined that one of those would be Uchiha Sasuke. Even if it meant an untimely demise, more heartache and sorrow, or even an eventual defection to the Sound, she didn't care. She knew herself better now, and with the uncertainty leaving her, she felt more of the darkness leaving as well.

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A/N: All done! Did that make sense to you guys? Anyway, lemme know what you think...Arigatou!

Dewa mata! Peace out and God bless!


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